C/2002 V1 (NEAT)
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| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by: | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, announced by S.H. Pravdo, Named after NEAT Observatory in Hawaii |
| Discovery date: | November 6, 2002 |
| Alternate designations: | C/2002 V1, 2002 V1, Comet NEAT |
| Orbital characteristics A | |
| Epoch: | 2452634.5 (December 26, 2002) |
| Aphelion distance: | 2020.81702178 AU |
| Perihelion distance: | 0.0992586594482068 AU |
| Semi-major axis: | 1010.45814021884 AU |
| Eccentricity: | 0.999901768657703 |
| Orbital period: | 32120.7511 a |
| Inclination: | 81.7060027382674° |
| Last perihelion: | February 18, 2003 |
| Next perihelion (predicted): | [1] |
Comet C/2002 V1 is a non-periodic comet that appeared in November, 2002. The comet appeared with a magnitude of approximately -0.5, making it the 7th brightest comet seen in 70 years as of January, 2007.[2] It was seen by SOHO in February 2003. It was calculated that the comet came closer to the sun than the Asteroid belt in September 2002. Controversy arose when the comet failed to break up when it approached the sun, as expected by scientists if it was a small comet.[citation needed] When the comet was hit by a Coronal mass ejection, some people rumored that the comet had "disturbed" the sun, although most scientists said it was unrelated.[citation needed] Further rumors were spread when the comet's image showed up in two different places on the LASCO SOHO images, and when an image showed up after a CCD bakeout on February 23, it was rumored to be the comet being expelled from the sun, although the orbits would have taken the comet out of SOHO's view.[citation needed]
